May — June, 1832. rio de Janeiro. 37 



flew past. The humming-birds seem particularly fond of 

 such shady retired spots. Whenever I saw these little 

 creatures buzzing round a flower, with their wings vibrating 

 so rapidly as to be scarcely visible, I was reminded of the 

 sphinx moths : their movements and habits are indeed, in 

 many respects, very similar. 



Following a pathway I entered a noble forest, and from a 

 height of five or six hundred feet, one of those splendid views 

 was presented, which are so common on every side of Rio. 

 At this elevation the landscape has attained its most brilliant 

 tint ; and every form, every shade, so completely surpasses in 

 magnificence all that the European has ever beheld in his 

 own country, that he knows not how to express his feelings. 

 The general effect frequently recalled to my mind the gayest 

 scenery of the Opera-house or the great theatres. I never 

 returned from these excursions empty-handed. This day I 

 found a specimen of a curious fungus, called Hymenophallus. 

 Most people know the Enghsh Phallus, which in autumn 

 taints the air with its odious smell : this, however, as the en- 

 tomologist is aware, is to some of our beetles a delightful 

 fragrance. So was it here ; for a Strongylus, attracted by 

 the odour, alighted on the fungus as I carried it in my hand. 

 We here see in two distant countries a similar relation be- 

 tween plants and insects of the same families, though the 

 species of both are different. When man is the agent in 

 introducing into a country a new species, this relation is often 

 broken : as one instance of this I may mention, that the 

 leaves of the cabbages and lettuces, which in England afford 

 food to such a multitude of slugs and caterpillars, in the 

 gardens near Rio are untouched. 



During our stay in Brazil I made a large collection of in- 

 sects. A few general observations on the comparative im- 

 portance of the diflferent orders, may be interesting to the 

 English entomologist. The large and brilliantly -coloured 

 Lepidoptera bespeak the zone they inhabit, far more plainly 

 than any other race of animals. I allude only to the butterflies ; 

 for the moths, contrary to what might have been expected 

 from the rankness of the vegetation, certainly appeared in much 



